The Walking Dead Season 3 big bad revealed

Will The Walking Dead Season 3’s big bad be Deadwood’s John Hawkes? Special effects master Tom Savini reckons so

Fans of The Walking Dead comic-book know that while the inter-group sniping and shambling zombie hordes are pretty trying for poor old Rick Grimes, it’s The Governor, who appears in the third collected volume ‘Safety Behind Bars’, who represents the first real nemesis for our survivors.

Foreshadowed in last year’s Rise Of The Governor tie-in novel, rumour has it that he’ll be appearing in the show’s third season, and visual effects guru and horror icon Tom Savini, who’s been campaigning for the role himself, revealed the producer’s first choice.

“Listen, I have been campaigning to be the Governor on that damn thing with Greg Nicotero for over a year,” Savini told Dread Central. “Every time I see the graphic novel and I see a picture of the Governor, who looks just like me, I send Greg a picture. I just won’t give up.

“Last time I talked to him about it, when I was in Los Angeles, he said they were going after a name for that part. I said, ‘Who?’ He said John Hawkes. Well, I never heard of John Hawkes. But then he reminds me that we were in From Dusk Till Dawn together. He is the guy at the beginning in the store that fires on them.

“Apparently he was up for an Academy Award; he was up for something called Winter’s Bone. That’s whom they are going after for the Governor.”

Hawkes has also appeared in last year’s harrowing Contagion, as well as being a series regular in HBO’s Deadwood, and his star is very much in the ascent.